Sparklers, Firecrackers, and Resolutions
by snowdrop03
Summary: It was the best New Year for the two, and they'd just leave it to that. — NatsuLucy


My first NaLu fic. Dunno if it's any good, so spare me :p

Disclaimer : Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail wholy, except for this plot.

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><p>"Up for a feast?"<p>

If a person was given this single query, he or she may assume that the speaker was inviting, or rather was offering them to what you may call an 'eating party' or anything synonymous and related to the word food, grand meal, and buffet.

But then again, the term 'food' might be a bit different to some certain people.

"Happy, bring them more!"

"Aye sir!"

Lucy Heartfilia was baffled. Not to the extent of it being extreme, but simply baffled. For a second there, she had forgotten who her pink-haired friend really was and how he most likely defined the word 'food'.

"You're making a weird face, Lucy," she heard one of her 'invitors' remarked.

"Ignore her, Happy. She is weird like that," the root of the whole reason she was here, who was none other than the so-called Salamander himself, merely snorted.

The blond mage on the other hand kept silent, staring flatly at her two comrades and their activity, too bemused to even utter a single comment.

It was New Year's eve. And the guild was having a party right about then. They had been there too, before she had been asked, or rather been dragged by the overly-enthusiastic dragon slayer and his loyal exceed to an opened clearing near their humble hut with that simple offer. And it was _still_ winter.

She shook her head lightly, zipping her thick brown jacket higher.

What had she been expecting?

Had she expected Natsu to invite her to try his gorgeous dishes? Or rather, had she expected him to treat her and Happy to the newly-opened buffet restaurant in the corner of the street?

Nope, both of them didn't even stand a chance. Natsu was a terrible terrible cook, and she'd just leave to that. She wouldn't want to recall his recent tried-out dish (the supposedly fried chicken he cooked looked scarily half-alive). She would also dismiss her second expectation, as she would always be the one who pay no matter where and when. And just telling, she did pay a lot.

"Why didn't you take Gray and Erza along instead? Or Romeo?" Lucy asked with gritting teeth, from her wooden log seat, watching Happy went back and fro as he was fetching each strip of colourful fire crackers he could manage.

Natsu turned his head abruptly (he was still wearing his usual black vest and white pants with his scaly scarf as his only winter attire much to Lucy's envy) giving Lucy one of his 'are you kidding me?' look which she directly knew why. Gray would probably freeze all of his fireworks to his own entertainment and Natsu's dismay and Erza would probably lecture him about how dangerous playing with the exploding substances was. And if she was not mistaken, Romeo had invited Wendy to tour the New Year Eve annual festival in the city or something...or so the grumpy but undeniably proud Charle had said.

"Don't tell me you don't want to come along, Lucy," Happy said with his super-depressed-with-ears-hung-low expression, followed by his owner who had prepared to go on one of his sulking-mode sessions, which never failed to make the celestial mage guilty.

"Of course not!" She waved frantically, "I love hanging out with you. But...why me of all people?"

"Why, you asked?" Natsu chuckled, he seemed relieved for a reason, "What's wrong with hanging out with your besties, right Happy?"

"Aye!" Happy agreed, "Besides, my fishes are still save with Lucy around!"

"I never ask for your fishes!" Lucy face palmed. Who in the freaking world wanted his raw (with cat bite marks all over) fishes?

"And...you are fun to be with!" Natsu added, setting his fists on fire and began lighting each firecracker that Happy had hung on a few nearby trees.

"F-fun?" Lucy stammered and felt herself blush. The girl wouldn't deny that she might like-liked the boy a tidbit. That simple statement implying that Natsu actually loved being around her even for a bit, fluttered her heart a little. At least she meant something to him...She hit herself mentally for feeling stupidly so. He was Natsu Dragneel for God's sake and she was his nakama. Yeah, just a _nakama._

"Are you sure it's not dangerous to eat that?" Lucy yelled through the popping sound of firecrackers, ignoring the sudden heavy lump in her heart.

"Dhid chu shey shumting, wushii?*" Natsu mumbled with his usual alien-like-gobbling languange, clad with a pair of red ear covers (due to his too-sensitive hearing, and not for weather protection purposes Lucy had noted). Crumbles or we must say, flickers of fire were spilling from the sides of his mouth once he 'spoke' and ended on the thin snow with a hiss.

She sweat dropped, a little glad that she was nowhere near his food outburst. Thanks to Happy's constant translation of the said language, she more or less could grasp what his mumbling-like tone meant.

Happy who was just going to put his own fish-shaped ear covers answered for him instead, "It's called fire 'crackers' for a reason. And crackers are yummy...or so Natsu says."

An amused smile graced Lucy's lips as she watched her best friends' antics. Okay, maybe coming here wasn't that bad. At least she got a bit of entertainment watching the pink-haired boy and his blue exceed running (in Happy's case, flying) from one tree to another. His head facing up to catch every single whitish flame that burst out from each exploding firecrackers (they had bought them from the magic shop, so the fire was a bit extreme) with his mouth gapping as wide as a Pac-man could while Happy was cheering on him pumping on his imaginary pom-poms. Well it was indeed fun if only he had warned her about the hazardous smoke. They should have warn her to bring an oxygen mask.

Blinking her watery slightly smoke-contaminated eyes, Lucy sorted the whole field and her eyes caught a long rectangular box. Quickly and excitedly, Lucy stood up, took the red box in her hands, and drop all the contents out.

"It's been a long time...," she muttered, playing the sticks between her fingers, then smiled softly.

"Oi, Lucy. What are you doing?" Natsu suddenly knelt beside her, with Happy peeking on his shoulder. It seemed that his feast was over already.

"Natsu, Happy!" Lucy grinned almost childishly, a rare smile playing on her lips which made the boy and the cat slightly taken a back, "Can we play with these?"

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><p>"You are no fun, Natsu," Lucy scoffed, then pouted indignantly, pulling the finished-sparkler stick from Natsu's mouth.<p>

"Don't put the blame on me!" Natsu shielded himself with his arms, somehow feared what the annoyed girl might do to him, "I can't help it!"

"This is the last one. Don't. Eat. It," Lucy warned him, spelling the last sentence word by word in hope that he would understand.

Happy whined, "Lucy's scaaary~" which earned a glare from the said girl and caused the poor cat to shrink back between Natsu's pink locks.

Natsu sighed, raising his hand in a surrendering mode. Lucy really scared the hell out of him sometimes, "Fine, fine, I'll try."

The blond frowned at his doubtful 'commitment', "Natsuuu..."

"Alright! I promise I won't! Cross my heart!" The dragon slayer said in reflex, drawing a cross right on his chest with his left index finger.

With that, Lucy nodded in relief and took out another stick of sparkler, holding it to her front as Natsu entwined his fingers on the tip of the stick and set it on fire.

In seconds, yellowish-orange sparks started bursting from little dot of flame Natsu had just lit up. Grinning widely, the blonde ran around the field, dragging the sparkler beside her as if spreading a mini rain of falling stars. She raised the stick to the sky and turned it around in circle, then to curvy lines as the fire left its visual traces of those shapes with Happy following after her with a teasing smile.

Natsu on the other hand was left staring at them, dumbfounded. Something about the way Lucy smiled and practically glowed (maybe the sparkler was the cause), dancing around childishly as if it was her first New Year Eve did something to his stomach. Natsu didn't have the idea why, but it was not the first time his tummy had churned whenever he was near Lucy. It was not the same way that made him want to puke, like his days on transportation. It resembled the way his adrenaline flow during his fights, but at the same time a tad different because that something also did the same to his heart, like it was been squeezed but in a good way. And no, he wouldn't start thinking about Happy's assumption of what that might be. Maybe, asking the exceed about those symptoms wasn't really a good idea.

"It will burn your skirt, Luuuucy," Happy snickered, amused by Lucy's acts, "Ah, it died," he teased innocently, as the fire died seconds later.

"Hmmph!" Lucy huffed at the laughing cat, as Natsu noticed a flicker of disappointment passed through her feature.

Just then, a loud 'boom' began rambling in the sky as splats of colour appeared.

"The fireworks are starting," he heard her mumble.

"Oh!" Happy suddenly yelled, "I have to watch with Charle! See you later, Lucy! And Natsu...," he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and mouthed the last words inaudibly before taking off, "Be lovey-dovey."

"What is that supposed to mean? Oi, Happy!" Natsu screamed at his retreating figure, somehow his face turned a bit warmer than usual. Damn Happy and his weird assumptions! Look what it had done to his head!

"Lovey-dovey?" Lucy piped in beside him, which made him jump a little.

"No, he said rubber ducky," Natsu quickly covered and prayed she would just eat it. He didn't want her especially to find out about what ideas Happy had been choking his head with, "He wants me to find his rubber ducky."

Lucy stared at him for a while but then shrugged the matter off. The same sparkle in her eyes then came back when she beamed at Natsu, "Let's watch the fireworks together, ne Natsu?"

Natsu grinned toothily, and immediately took her hand, "C'mon, Lucy!"

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><p>"Look! It looks like Happy!" Natsu pointed at the bursting blue cat shaped firework.<p>

"Haha, and that pink one looks like you!" Lucy pointed her finger to a rather random firework, which exploded into a pink flower-like shape.

"No way! Lucy, you meanie," he chuckled and punched Lucy lightly on her arm.

Lucy laughed, "Right, right."

They were sitting side by side on the grass, all eyes on the colourful night sky. It turned out that Natsu had dragged Lucy towards the hill, the best star, city and fireworks gazing in the whole Magnolia City, or so Natsu had said.

"Pretty," Lucy whispered and gaped at the wonderful sight, unconsciously edging nearer to Natsu, to catch more of his warmth.

"Yummy," Natsu muttered, practically drooling.

Lucy shot him a look and he added reluctantly, "I mean pretty...yummy."

Lucy sighed and shifted her caramel orbs back up, amused by how her dragon slayer friend preferred fireworks as eating material than some visual sights.

Natsu moved his gaze to Lucy instead, either intentionally or unintentionally, watching as her pretty face lit up every time the fireworks appeared in the sky. Her lips again, was curved into a soft smile. And did he just thought of her as pretty? One side of him was laughing inside. Lucy was pretty, everyone would think so, at least normal people thought so, scratch that fat Everlue. Lucy was his besties for God's sake, and he always knew that she was pretty even when he had first met her, but why did he just realize it just that moment?

Another side of him couldn't even took his gaze off her, even if he wanted to. He loved that smile, he always did. And he, for some reasons, wanted that smile to keep still, and he would be much happier if he was the biggest reason of it...maybe his hero complex thought so or Happy really did mess up his damned brain.

"Natsu?" Lucy whispered, still not taking her eyes off the sky, which was displaying a red-dragon shaped fireworks. She seemed unaware of the 'intense' stare Natsu had been giving, much to his relief.

"Yup?"

Lucy tilted her head towards him, "Have you decided on your resolution?"

It only took a few seconds for Natsu to answer. Putting both of his arms behind his head, he smirked in determination, "I'll be stronger, that's for sure. I'll beat that ice brain and Erza, then become an S-class mage. So, if I meet Igneel, he will be proud of me, then..."

Natsu stopped. _Then?_ _Then what?_ He felt a need to accomplish another something but what was it?

Leaving statement hanging, he asked Lucy back, "What's yours?"

"Dunno," she shrugged, then smiled sadly with eyes darting to the ground, "Probably getting stronger too. Seeing I'm the weakest in the team and all."

Natsu narrowed his eyes at her, "You are not weak, Lucy."

Lucy rolled her eyes as her respond, implying the sarcastic remark she was giving, "Yeah right."

Natsu frowned. Lucy was not weak, he knew that for sure. Her type of magic may be different and wasn't as violent as the others in Fairy Tail. But, he still thought that summoning those spirits was cool, if he ignored the fact that her spirits was as weird as their master. And Lucy might be the toughest Celestial mage he had ever encountered.

He had never known that Lucy had always looked that low upon herself, and he simply disliked it. He wanted Lucy to smile, a real Lucy-like smile, just like when they had played with the sparklers. There was that huge urge in his heart that wanted to do anything to turn her every frown into a smile and treasure them forever. He even had that stupid thought of wanting her to smile just for him...That very moment, his mind clicked, which was very rare, for a boy like Natsu that is. But maybe, Happy's lessons for him didn't go to waste.

"Oh! The countdown has started!" Lucy exclaimed, through the booming sound of fireworks as a loud "10!" echoed from the city, then began descending to 9, 8...She bet that Fairy Tail was a part of it, seeing how loud and lively they were.

"Lucy," Natsu called out to her, "Do you want to hear my last resolution?"

Lucy was surprised at his sudden request, but then nodded, "My ears are all open."

_5...4..._

"Man, this is hard," Natsu mumbled lowly, scratching his pink hair in frustration, which resulted the curious Lucy to lean closer so she could hear what he said.

"Lucy?" The pink haired boy suddenly raised his head, determination was shown on his face and it startled Lucy a little as she moved backwards abruptly. But what confused her more was that she could spot the tiniest hint of blush on his cheeks. It could be possible that the fireworks was just playing with her eyes.

"Yea-", before Lucy could even finish, Natsu's lips had captured her into a kiss. It was only a warm little peck, because as soon as their lips met, they both pulled away in unison, just right when the countdown turned to 1.

"Happy New Year!" Various echoes of voices could be heard from the city below them, in contrast to the total silence that lingered on the hill.

Lucy was blushing madly, clearly lost in words. Because Natsu, yes, her best friend Natsu, had just kissed her! She even began doubting if he was the Natsu she knew, or maybe she was just hallucinating. Yeah, that smoke must really had done something to her senses.

Natsu was touching his still warm lips, his cheeks unnaturally a little pinkish. He himself was surprised by his sudden instinctive action. After calming down his crazy heart beats, he coughed and forced another words to come out of his mouth. Grinning extra widely he said, "My last resolution : be Lucy Heartfilia's most awesome boyfriend."

Yeah, he would become the one who would protect that smile, as her most awesome boyfriend.

Lucy was stunned. He was indeed the fire mage she knew. That smile, it only belonged to the Natsu she knew alone. She then smiled back, tears nearly spilled from her eyes as she said that single word, the answer of his indirect confession, "Check."

That New Year Day, Natsu Dragneel proudly announced that he had achieved one of his epic resolutions within the first ten seconds of January, 1.

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><p>*Did you say something, Lucy? (in case you didn't get it :p)<p>

What do you think? Sorry if Natsu is OOC or anything, he's always the hardest to write if it includes romance -_-

Anyway, this idea just popped in my mind. I was planning to make a New Year fic, then firecrackers popped in my mind, then it went to Natsu, then I thought why not make a NaLu fic, so there.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope this fic is worth reading. Please review and tell me what you think :D

See you next time~

~snowdrop03


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